The Lowest Pair

“With their bare-bones instrumentation and country-inspired, heartstring-tugging narrative, The Lowest Pair might be one of the best under-the-radar Americana duos today.” – Paste Magazine

“Ringing, twanging banjo and guitar ground the album in the rich dirt of American roots, bluegrass and rural country, and give it the timeless feel of the Lowest Pair’s previous releases; it’s the voices and the words themselves, enmeshed and weaving, that make the songs on Uncertain As It Is Uneven cling like ghosts.” – No Depression

The Lowest Pair features the duel banjo picking of Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee, draped in Kendl’s high lonesome harmonies and Palmer’s Midwest croon.

In Spring of 2016, Team Love releases two new collections. Fern Girl and Ice Man and Uncertain As It is Uneven could be viewed as two windows into the growing world of The Lowest Pair. Uncertain stays the course of their previous releases, 36cents and The Sacred Heart Sessions, being focused on stripped down, intimate arrangements to support their timeless songwriting and haunting vocals. Fern Girl is a moodier and more adventurous exploration of new sounds, new studio production directions, and a suggestion of what The Lowest Pair might sound like supported by a full band, while still keeping one foot planted in the roots aesthetics which drew them together from the beginning.

The Lowest Pair had been planning to release a new record in the Spring of 2016. So in early 2015 Palmer convinced Kendl to spend a winter in Minnesota, with the temptation of working with local greats Dave Simonett and Erik Koskinen on the new material. The duo then set off on what would be a successful season of touring their second, critically acclaimed album, The Sacred Heart Sessions(Spin: “solemn and humble;” The Bluegrass Situation: “deeply felt”), and a new-old-time record, I Reckon I’m Fixin’ On Kickin’ Round To Pick A Little. In the fall, returning to the midwest to finish up the recordings they had begun a few months prior, Kendl and Palmer found themselves with a whole new batch of songs ready to lay down. After much deliberation, they ambitiously decided the two collections should be released together in 2016. The new records, Fern Girl and Ice Man, as well as Uncertain As It Is Uneven, could be viewed as two windows into the growing and changing world of The Lowest Pair. Uncertain stays the course of their previous releases, being focused on stripped down, intimate arrangements to support their timeless songwriting and haunting vocals. Fern Girl is a more moody and adventurous exploration of new sounds, new studio production directions, and what it might sound like for The Lowest Pair to be supported by a full band, while keeping one foot planted in the rootsy aesthetics which drew them together from the beginning. Kendl Winter, born in Arkansas, moved to Olympia, Washington after high school, drawn to the evergreen forests and the lively and thriving music scene. She put three solo records out on Olympia’s indie label, K Records, and performed in nationally-touring northwest string bands before beginning The Lowest Pair in 2013 with Palmer T. Lee. Palmer built his first banjo when he was 19 from pieces he serendipitously inherited. Shortly after deciding songwriting would be the most effective and enjoyable medium for his musings, he began cutting his teeth fronting Minneapolis string bands and touring the midwest festival circuit, which is where he and Kendl first met, on the banks of the Mississippi. So, back to that Spring of 2016 plan: with little attention to tedious practicalities and with an eye focused securely on delivering to their growing fan base a truly special treat; a rootsy, bluegrassy, old-timish version of meiosis has happened as one new album became two new albums. Fans already know that the chemistry between Palmer’s Midwestern charm, those long winters spent listening to a steady diet of Townes Van Zandt and John Hartford, and Kendl’s poetic and playful way with words, her unique approach to the banjo (just listen to “Dreaming Of Babylon”), and her barefootin-the-cool-river-water mystique combine to make a powerful sound, but what’s new in 2016 is both the inclusion of those non-banjo sounds (harmonica, drum, bass, violin) and an incredible expansion of their songbook. In a way, two records, the playful and the hush, the dark and the rooted, the pillow and the nightmare, the pin drop and the starry night; the juxtaposition of the ups and downs that are experiences in a day, in a year, in a minute, all this has demanded from the band more than just “a new record.” Fern Girl and Ice Man and Uncertain As It Is Uneven mark the arrival of America’s next great musical duo, and it’s over the course of these two albums that that boast becomes clearly rooted in truth. Uncertain As It Is Uneven and Fern Girl And Ice Man (TL-93 and TL-94) are out on Team Love Records in 2016.